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WISCONSIN SPORTS ROUND-UP: WIAC volleyball tournament begins tonight

Four teams have won the WIAC women’s volleyball tournament in the past five years – and UW Stevens Point hopes to join that group as the league tourney begins tonight.

The top-seeded Pointers have a first-round bye, along with Eau Claire. Third-seeded Whitewater hosts Platteville tonight, while fourth-seeded La Crosse is at home against Oshkosh. Tonight’s winners advance to the semifinal round on Friday night. The final two rounds will be played at Stevens Point. Eau Claire won last year’s tournament. Whitewater was the champion in 2011, Platteville in 2010, Whitewater in ’09, and Oshkosh in 2008.

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Luke Barthelmess of Lawrence University in Appleton has been named the offensive player-of-the-week in the Midwest Conference. Barthelmess, a senior quarterback, passed for a season-high 337 yards and ran for a season-high 131 yards in Lawrence’s loss to Grinnell. Barthelmess made three touchdown passes, bringing his career total to 57 – just short of breaking the Lawrence record of 59 set by Jim Petran. Grinnell linebacker David Ternes is the Midwest defensive player-of-the-week. Joey Kropp of Lake Forest received the honors on special teams. Also, Sidney Blodgett of Ripon College has again been named the Midwest women’s soccer defensive performer-of-the-week. The sophomore goal-keeper gave up two goals in 180 minutes of two matches last week.

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Logan Andryk of the Milwaukee School of Engineering has been named the men’s offensive soccer player-of-the-year in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference. Andryk, a sophomore forward, was the league’s top regular season scorer with 38 points and five game-winning goals. Jacob Pope of Concordia-Wisconsin is the NACC’s defensive player-of-the-year. Pope, a senior defenseman, led the Mequon back-line to eight shutouts this season with a one-point-oh-two goals-against-average. He also had seven assists. Both Andryk and Pope were also named to a 14-member all-conference first team. On the women’s side, Edgewood’s Tim Alexander was named coach-of-the-year, after his Eagles won the top seed in the league tournament. Sara Travia of Milwaukee Engineering is the freshman of the year with 13 goals and four assists. She also made the all-conference first team.